I killed many victims:
I was very fierce, and if they bawled me out, I wasn’t afraid of them. I killed many victims. I was the first warrior to go into a battle. I didn’t want anyone ahead of me. I captured people and wouldn’t let others kill them.
The biggest war was the one they fought in the direction of Rincón.
Some of the warrios would kill the daughters of their enemies:
Jmanenáquidé was a warrior of the Garaigosode. Ingoiné was a warrior of the Jnupedogosode long ago; he was from Rincón. These warriors would kill the daughters of their enemies.
This is what we did to get rid of being guilty after shedding blood:
After a battle we would do the ceremony called ‘ore tãre gai’; this was what we did to get rid of being guilty after shedding blood. We drew a likeness of what we killed in the dirt. When someone would fall on the drawing of the victim (daragapídi) it was a very serious matter: he could die or disappear.
It’s generally when their victims were white people that they do ‘the blood guiltiness ceremony’ (ore tãre gai). Those who didn’t participate in the killing (dajíroméone) do not do ‘the blood guiltiness ceremony’. It was the warriors of the tribe that killed people, but the common Ayoreos aren’t courageous enough to kill. It’s the real warriors who attack a camp first, and the common people run in after them. So when I went to war, I was with the warriors who went in first, and the common ones stayed behind us.
I killed nine of the Guidaigosode warriors.
We went to Bolivia to find girls:
When we were looking for girls, we’d go down to Bolivia.
The place where I was born was called Engábi; that was the name of the little village. My father’s name was Jomaine. My mother’s name was Podé. My wife’s father was a Direquedéjnagosi, and his name was Igoi. Her mother’s name was Jumuné.
Key:
Ore tãre gai – ceremony to take away the guilt for having killed
daragapídi – drawing of a victim
dajíroméone – killings
Oidábiadé – Campo Loro, Paraguay – 1988
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie
